Starting in 2004, glitzy affairs were the main events in a massive fraud by Ginn Development Co. and its affiliates that tricked thousands of wealthy buyers into snapping up lots and golf memberships at over-heated prices, artificially driving up values with bogus record-keeping and false promises of extravagant amenities, according to a lawsuit file din Collier Circuit Court.

Hot air balloon rides, lavish spreads of catered food ? even a monkey doing tricks ? greeted Monty Schwartz when he walked into the Hollywood-style gala that doubled as a launch for a new upscale community near Orlando.

The glitz, repeated at similar events around Florida, including at Quail West along the Collier-Lee county line before the community's current developer was in place, masked a more sinister scheme, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in Collier Circuit Court.

Starting in 2004, the affairs were the main events in a massive fraud by Ginn Development Co. and its affiliates that tricked thousands of wealthy buyers into snapping up lots and golf memberships at over-heated prices, artificially driving up values with bogus record-keeping and false promises of extravagant amenities, according to the lawsuit.

When the plan collapsed as the real estate market soured, Schwartz, 68, lost more than $3 million he had paid for six lots in the Orlando community and for a deposit on a Quail West lot. The Schwartzes lost their Florida home and their life savings. His wife, 63, had to go back to work. He needed a quadruple heart bypass as the stress took a toll on his health, he said.

"I am broke," said Schwartz, a former health-care products company owner. "This has not been a minor fluke in my life. This has been a life-changing experience that can't be undone."

The lawsuit filed in mid-March adds to a tangle of legal troubles for Ginn, which is defending numerous similar lawsuits around Florida and in other states. Ginn has strongly denied the allegations in other lawsuits.

The Collier lawsuit was amended Friday to add plaintiffs ? buyers from Chicago to Ireland ? and to add a list of banks and mortgage lenders the lawsuit alleges helped push the scheme and provided financing to cheated buyers.

Besides playing out at Quail West, the scheme included seven other communities near Orlando, Port St. Lucie and Palm Coast in Florida and in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and the Bahamas, according to the amended lawsuit.

Besides playing out at Quail West, the scheme included seven other communities near Orlando, Port St. Lucie and Palm Coast in Florida and in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and the Bahamas, according to the lawsuit filed in Collier Circuit Court.

Ginn developed almost a cult following, Gilman said, wooing investors for months in advance of a launch to create a false sense of high demand and short supply.

Launch parties were overbooked, and Ginn would conduct sham lotteries for a chance to buy a lot, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Ginn picked the winners, not based on chance, but based on inside information from lenders onsite to finance the purchases.

Nearly 1,000 people were expected to attend the 2005 launch for Quail West; Ginn had bought undeveloped properties there months earlier for $63 million from an England-based company. The company had 266 lots to sell.

"Picture a big wedding you would put on for the King of Siam," Gilman said, referring to the huge event tent that housed the launch party.

The event included helicopter tours over Quail West, a four-course meal, gifts and a New York Stock Exchange-style electronic board posting sales in real time to help juice the crowd to get into the action, Gilman said.

Ginn created false values for lots by making false promises to build high-priced amenities, according to the lawsuit.

For example, Gilman said, Quail West was promoted as an amenity hub for various Ginn communities around Florida, but the lawsuit alleges that Ginn never even owned the land for a promised beach club. The company also never obtained permits for promised boat slips, a spa and an outdoor pool and cabanas, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that Ginn created inflated values by selling multiple lots to the same buyer and then manipulating how the sales were recorded. For example, the full price for two lots would be recorded as the price for one of the lots; the other lot would be recorded as costing $1.

The Ginn lawsuit is shining a spotlight anew on the troubled history of the development company and its leader, Bobby Ginn, in Southwest Florida.

In December 2008, a Ginn affiliate filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions related to its investments in Quail West and a community in Port St. Lucie after defaulting on $675 million in debt owned at those two communities and two others in Grand Bahama and Boone, N.C.

In December 2008, a Ginn affiliate filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions related to its investments in Quail West and a community in Port St. Lucie after defaulting on $675 million in debt owned at those two communities and two others in Grand Bahama and Boone, N.C.

The bankruptcy didn't include the Quail West golf course or other country club amenities, and Quail West was bought by another developer at auction in March 2009.

The Ginn defaults in Southwest Florida continued in 2009, when the company failed to make a $283,000 quarterly payment on a $63 million deal in which it bought 4,500 acres east of Florida Gulf Coast University.

Ginn was a significant donor to FGCU: In 2006, the developer donated $2.5 million to qualify FGCU for a matching state grant to build the university's engineering school. Ginn eventually became a $5.2 million donor to the university, FGCU spokeswoman Susan Evans said.

By 2006, Schwartz, one of the plaintiffs in the Collier class-action lawsuit, was getting worried about his ability to resell his investment lots near Orlando.

Needing to raise money, Schwartz turned to Ginn's sales staff to sell his lots. Three times they promised they had found buyers, Schwartz said. Each time, they said the deal fell through.

Running out of cash, the banks foreclosed on all of his Ginn properties, took Schwartz's home, and he and his wife moved out of state.

It was a devastating turnaround from the day when Schwartz remembers mingling in a crowd of richly dressed people speaking with accents from all over the world at the launch party near Orlando.

"It was impossible not to feel you were in the presence of greatness," Schwartz said.